Ahead of his new film, Killing Them Softly, which is out next month, Brad Pitt is this month’s Interview Magazine cover star. The editorial, as shot by Steven Klein, runs alongside an interview of the actor by Guy Ritchie and portrays Pitt in the roles of Rasta, rake, drifter and hitman.
Here’s a little taster of the interview where Pitt talks about supporting Obama, how he prefers producing movies to starring in them, and of course, ‘Killing Them Softly’ where Brad Pitt plays Jackie Cogan, a professional enforcer who investigates a heist that went down during a mob-protected poker game.
RITCHIE: Let me ask you this then: What gets you excited about making a movie at this point? How do you decide to do one?
PITT: Well, listen, I think I’m at a point now where I feel like I can jump into anything and lay something down that’s quality. Someone may be better at it—or maybe not—but I know that if I have a feeling for it, then I can make it interesting. But even more as I get older, it’s about the company that I keep. That’s the most important thing to me—that if I’m gonna spend however long it takes to make a movie, give up 14 hours a day for however many weeks or months, then it’s very important for me to know that I’m working with people who I respect and enjoy and that we’re going for something together. That’s it, really.
RITCHIE: So it sounds like you’re saying that you choose to work with certain directors or writers because of a kind of tone that they set in a sense.
PITT: Yeah. I mean, as you know, so much of making movies is about discovery on the day, what you’re figuring out. If you know everything going in, then it’s not worth doing—it’s already done. So I’m interested in finding people who I think have a voice—and a very specific voice. It’s hard to be surprised by a film. It’s hard to be surprised by another actor or by a director when you’ve seen enough and been around. So when I am, or when I forget that I’m watching someone’s movie, or when I don’t know how someone made a certain turn that I didn’t expect . . . You know, I’m in.
Read more at www.interviewmagazine.com